


Siren's Song

by Chanson_de_Sirene



Series: Here there be Mermaids [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 12:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9071995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chanson_de_Sirene/pseuds/Chanson_de_Sirene





	

        “Pirate ship spotted on the horizon!”

      The sailor in the crow’s nest immediately scrambled down the mast onto the deck and repeated his shout. In his quarters, mid-sentence, Nile Dok set down his quill and stood. Sloppily slapping his hat onto his head and giving a quick glance to his sleeping wife, he rushed out of his quarters onto the deck to find his ship in a flurry of activity. Removing his spyglass from his coat, Nile scanned the horizon until he found the ship his men had warned them about.

      It seemed fairly harmless. Plain, white sails carried the ship forward while it’s deep brown, teak wood hull contrasted vividly against the pale blue sky and darker blue water. By any accounts, it would have been a normal ship. But there was something _off_ about it that Nile couldn't quite put his finger on. Regardless, such ships, especially those without clear identification, meant they were either non sovereign ships or pirates. Either way, Nile Dok was not going to risk his cargo. 

      Without needing to be told, men climbed up the masts to release the sails to their full capacity while his first mate took to the helm. An eternity seemed to pass before their ship finally completed it's turn and the ship on the horizon began to diminish. When it was barely more than a barely there shape of a ship, Nile allowed his men to relax. There was no way the other ship could catch up with them now. They had been at full sails already and were still so far away. 

      Except they weren't. 

      Nile couldn't comprehend how he and his crew had gotten onto the deck. Their hands were firmly behind their backs as if bound and they were kneeling calmly around the center mast. A confused glance upwards revealed slack sails that, before, had been fully expanded and taut while the chain of their anchor that had been thrown over the side and held the ship firmly in place. From what he could see, there were screaming gulls flitting from various parts of the ship, sloshing waves crashing against the side of the ship and Marie staring wildly at them all from the doors of their quarters, her lips moving in what he presumed to be shouts. 

      Nile heard none of this. 

      What in the hell was going on? 

      A boarding plank appeared on the edge of the ship. Nile frowned at the thing, knowing what it was and what it meant, but not really comprehending why and how it was there. There were figures using the boarding plank and coming aboard his ship and figures already quickly binding his men's hands. Someone had grabbed Marie as she attempted to lock herself into their quarters, but the petite, but surprisingly strong blonde woman dragged her out and forced her to her knees. Nile felt concern for her, of course. What husband wouldn't when his wife was being harrassed and forced against her will? But it was all distant. 

      And still he couldn't hear. 

      Marie was placed at his side, along with most of his men. She was still shouting something, though from the wild look on her face, Nile could tell it was because of him and his men's lack of action. But that too was a distant concern. He just knew that he had to sit still and be quiet. 

      Then a man accompanied by a woman stepped onto his deck. If there was a face Nile could recognize from a mile away, it was that one. The gait and way the man held himself alone was recognizable as a stand out feature, but it was the eyebrows that really sealed it for Nile. 

      "Erwin Smith." Nile spat, hoping to rid himself of the taste the man's name left in his mouth. "How dare you."

      There was amusement on Erwin’s face as he bent down on one knee. Those blue eyes that had every girl swooning in their youth lit up with joy and his lips were stretched wide in a smile. It was as if he thought this was a game. 

      "Is that how you greet an old friend, Nile?"

      The woman who accompanied the former commodore merely raised an eyebrow at Erwin's words, but showed little else in way of emotion. There was something very attractive about her, not only her pretty face, but her personality or demeanor. Even her humming drew him in. But at the same time, it was all also very repulsive. It was almost as if her whole presence was intended to lure you in and then kill you. It was very unsettling. 

      Nile tore his eyes away from the woman. "We stopped being friends the day you betrayed the Crown, _Pirate_."

      Erwin clicked his tongue. He shook his head before letting out a deep sigh that was more bone weary that Nile would have thought. "That's where you are wrong, dear Nile. I did not betray the Crown. The Crown betrayed me." 

      He made a sweeping motion backwards to his ship a mere feet away. A few men and women still lingered on the deck, overseeing their comrades from their own ship, swords and cutlasses at the ready should they need them. 

      "You see, the moment they took my ship, hanged my men and burned it _still full of slaves_ to the ground was the day I stopped believing in God and country."

      He acted as if Nile enjoyed seeing the ship burn. While the repulsive screams hadn’t been something to rejoice in, they were necessary. Ruined cargo was just that and needed to be dealt with. He just wished he hadn’t been there to witness and hear such things.

      Still, that didn’t justify the pillaging, the destroying of ships and the constant attacks on the Crown’s possessions. Too many ships and ports had been sacked by Erwin’s crew and no one seemed to know how.

      Nile opened his mouth to spit out some retort when the doors to his cargo hold were thrown open with a bang. An impossibly tall, dark haired young man walked out of the cargo hold with a barrel in hand. He was quickly followed by two others, each of them with expressions of excitement and happiness. The barrel was set down, the Azorean oranges added to the pile and the three of them began speaking. Nile sat in horror as the shorter of the two males, one with eyes like the ocean on a clear day, quickly gave Erwin the complete inventory in the hold, including the expensive wine, spices and oranges they had been expressly sent to fetch.

      The brunette girl had even started to peel one of the oranges and the look of pure joy as she consumed the premium fruit brought only anger to Nile. He wanted so badly to stand and snatch the fruit from her hands, to kick the shorter male in the stomach like the filthy urchin he was, but whatever spell both he and his crew were under held him still.

      His men had already been searched. A blond man and a freckled woman had stripped them of their possessions while a shaved haired man had ransacked whatever had been in their sleeping quarters. The piles of it were laid out next to the barrels of wine to be hauled off to their ship. Even the money Nile had stashed away in the nook had been found by a black haired woman and Marie's precious dresses were being twirled about, as if they were playthings for children. 

      “I thought you called yourself righteous, Erwin. I thought you had always said you had integrity!”

      There was no disguising the rancor in his voice. There was no point. His ship had been stripped to the bare essentials. How was he going to explain this to his superiors?

      That woman - the beautiful, repulsive woman - pressed the emerald green dress against her body and spun in place. The hem of Marie’s dress fluttered in the wind her movement had created and Nile couldn't help but imagine how she’d look in it. He loved Marie of course. She was the only one in his heart, but that woman….He couldn’t help but feel jealous of the way Erwin suddenly grinned and cupped her face.

      The envy grew worse as the woman stood on her tiptoes to whisper in the blond’s ear and earning a grin. To say that he was the only one wishing to be blessed by her laugh was an outright lie. His first mate and quarter master even went as far to lean in a bit at the sight. 

      What was it with this woman? 

      “As I’ve said before. I bear no loyalty to the Crown.” Turning away from the woman, the former commodore returned his attention to Nile and his men. When a man approached him, arms full of _his_ things, Erwin waved away a member of his crew, allowing them to cart away yet more of Nile’s cargo. “Do you remember how they beat my First Mate? When he had only protested? I do believe you were the one who suggested that.”

      “And this is your revenge?” Nile was all but snarling now. 

      Erwin cast a glance downwards at the now quiet Marie. Their stare lasted longer than Nile would have liked, but from Erwin’s expression, he was satisfied that it hadn’t gone as Erwin had wanted. Was he still sore over that? They had made peace with what had happened years ago...supposedly. 

      “If you’d like.”

      Erwin gave the ship one last look. Nodding, he motioned to those of his crew still aboard Nile’s ship to leave, following the last of them. 

      “Wait.”

      That woman, the silent, ever watching woman, spoke, giving Erwin a strange look. Nile could feel the ever so slight hurt, flare of anger and then satisfaction that washed over her face in a millisecond deep in his bones. He felt himself sway with a rhythm that was like the waves below him as she hummed, but almost as if they were a separate set of waves. As if this woman crouching down oh so gracefully in front of his wife was the cause of them.

      Marie’s reaction to the woman was visceral. When she had leaned forward, Marie had jerked backwards. There was a mixture of terror and hatred on his wife’s face, something he’d never seen before. He was almost certain if she could have, Marie would have bitten the woman in the nose. But whatever the woman was, because no woman could be that inviting and yet repulsive, kept his wife in check.

      The woman whispered something in Marie’s ear while undoing the clasp that held her necklace in place. She gave Marie a soft smile, kissed her cheek with the same tenderness of a lover before she was pushing herself upright and into Erwin’s arms.

      The two of them gave Nile and his crew one last look before they were walking across the planking and onto their own ship. Their sails were let out and soon, their ship was sailing off into the distance.

      Only when the ship’s name became the only thing emblazoned onto Nile’s mind did he realize what had happened to them all.

      The old sailors had spoken of the _Siren’s Song_ , but he’d never believed them. Now he knew better than dispute them.


End file.
